Amazon Echo Dot is BACK! October release date, new color, and more!

The Echo Dot is available for pre-order through Amazon.com, with an expected ship date of October 20, 2016. Now you can have an Echo in every room, without having to actually buy an Echo for every room. You can buy 3 Dots for less than the cost of one Echo.

The Dot sold out quickly last spring, and this is the first hint of its return. Considering how fast it flew off the virtual shelves when it was introduced, the Dot will probably sell out again. Hopefully, Amazon has a bigger heap of these things ready to go than they did last time.

It’s back! And it’s got a lower price tag!

These new Dots, branded “2nd Generation”, are mechanically identical to 1st gen Dots except for a white color option and a lower price. A white Echo is being added to the lineup, too, with an earlier release date of September 28, 2016.

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you love your Echo and want more of it. The Dot is like getting more Echoes but for cheaper, and the tradeoff is the speaker isn’t as good. The Dot’s speaker is kind of like the speaker on your phone. However, unlike the Echo, you can plug the Dot into any better speaker, and this Voltron-like combination of powers might make Dot + Your Really Good Speaker a better deal for you than a single Echo.

What’s new in the 2nd generation Echo Dot?

Lower price!

This pre-order is open to everyone! This time around, the Dot can be ordered directly through Amazon.com, by anyone. The previous Dot was only ordered through an existing Echo and there was a stricter limit on the number that could be purchased by a single buyer.

White color option

It’s actually available for purchase 😀

The 2nd generation Echo Dot has the same internals as the 1st generation version.

Echo Dot, now with the burden of having to choose which color you want.

Echo Dot Bundle Deals

Amazon’s got some sweet bundle deals for the Dot this time around.

Dot bundle deals

You can buy 5 Dots and get the 6th one free, thanks to a bundle deal currently offered by Amazon. (There is also a “buy 10 get 12 free” deal, which is basically the same thing but Amazon is currently restricting buyers to one multipack per customer.) If you have a big place or multiple places, or some cooperative friends, this is an awesome deal.

Don’t forget to enter the promo code when you complete your Amazon order: DOT6PACK or DOT12PACK

This release of the Dot comes with two bundle deals: buy 5 – get 1 free or buy 10 -get 2 free

What goes well with the Echo Dot?

When the return of the Dot was first made known on Amazon, Amazon was also offering some sweet Dot + other thing deals. Amazon has since discontinued these bundle deals.

Here are some things that I think go well with a Dot.

Hue Philips Starter Kit (3 rainbow bulbs and a hub)

What could be lazier better than telling your lights to turn on or off with just your voice? “Alexa, turn the lights on” is probably the first words our baby will learn because we say it so much around here. The Philips Hue starter kit comes with 3 rainbow bulbs and a hub.

Bose SoundLink Mini II

Something the Dot is good for is turning your Bluetooth or WiFi speaker into a voice-controlled speaker. The Echo and the Tap only have so-so speakers, but if you want the best of both worlds (voice control over an awesome speaker), grab something like the Bose SoundLink Mini II to go with your Dot.

Make any speaker into an Alexa-powered speaker with the Dot.

This speaker is incredible, especially for its size. I’ve had my SoundLink Mini for a couple years now and it’s such a versatile, powerful speaker. I highly recommend it to anyone wondering which speaker to pair with a Dot. The SoundLink mini isn’t WiFi by default, but paired with a Dot, it can be. This means you can stream music over WiFi to it (such as through Spotify Connect), which offers better sound quality and connectivity over streaming through Bluetooth.